Faded Dreary
by AniBlaire
Summary: Faith is a vampire with a soul, Buffy is her annoying childe with a chip in her head.


Title: Faded Dreary

Author: [Blaire Ryan][1]

Rating: R, probably

Classification:Anya/Faith, Faith/Kate, Kate/Riley, Drusilla/Wesley, Drusilla/Darla, Ripper/Willow, Angel/Elizabeth, Elizabeth/Kate, Elizabeth/Anya, Angel/Anya, Wesley/Chase, Elizabeth/Luke, Elizabeth/Tara, Harmony/Ripper, Harmony/Chase Faith/Angel/Elizabeth, Faith/Penn, Faith/Whistler, Harmony/Xander, Faith/Harmony

Summary:Faith is trying to sort out her actions and emotions, and heads to Sunnydale.

Spoilers:Up to Into the Woods and Reunion

Distribution: [You Got the Stones?][2],[Eternal Bitca][3], anyone else can have, just give me a holler where it is put up.

Disclaimer:To all the punks who own the stuff associated with B:tVS and A:tS, or as they are here, K:tVS and F:tS

Feedback: Desired much so.

Challenge: #20 at You Got the Stone? Faith had to be the vampire with a soul, Buffy her annoying grandchilde.

Author's Notes: Okay, this is like, VERY AU.A lot of the same stuff is happening to the characters, it's just the characters are different people.That, in fact, is where it gets complicated.The pairing list and Author's Notes will probably be longer than the actual story!

Kate: The Vampire Slayer:The slayer is Kate Lockley, 20 year old going to sophomore year of college.Her watcher is William, who in his teenage years was called Spike.Her best friend is Drusilla, who is a practicing Wicca.Drusilla went out with werewolf and guitarist Wesley, until he left to try to control the wolf inside.Later, Dru met a timid woman named Darla and the fell in love.Kate's other best friend is Rupert "Ripper" Giles, who is dating an ex-demon named Willow.Kate is still in the reboundy relationship with Riley, who is going to whore houses to get "sucked."

For the Faith: The Series, and the vampires: Faith, she is a vampire with a soul.She was sired by Anya, a 400-year-old childe of the Master.Faith drove the pious Liam insane, and then sired him.He now calls himself Angel, because in the villages people once call him the insane angel from hell.Angel sired a noblewoman named Elizabeth Anne Summers, who had been reeling from heartbreak after rejection by a man named Luke in 1860.After killing a young gypsy boy in 1898, Faith was cursed with a soul.She attempted to join back with Anya, Elizabeth, and Angel during the Boxer rebellion, but was cast out again after her refusal to eat a pair of twins Anya brought her.She spent 9 decades a worthless not-human being, attempting to help humanity very little, until she met a demon named Doyle.He showed her Kate, whom she fell in love with immediately.After the Sunnydale stuff happened, Faith left for Los Angeles, where she met a half demon named Chase, and Ripper's former girlfriend, Harmony.They form a successful helpless-saving organization, and an unrequited crush happens between Chase after Harmony.That is, until right before Chase gives her life to stop the Scourge, and passes her visions onto Harmony.In comes Wesley, Dru's old werewolf boyfriend.He saves Harmony from black-market demon parts people, and becomes part of the group.Faith's old childe Gunn comes into town, committing the same types of murders that happened 200 years ago.He is dusted by Penn, a cop who learns Faith's secret.The short-lived relationship between Faith and Penn erodes.After much grief over Wolfram & Hart, a princess from another dimension, an actor wanting to become eternal, releasing evil Faith, and the knowledge of Shanshu, things calm down.All is going good, Harmony coming out of the never ending vision a better, smarter person, and Wesley surviving the blast, when they realize Anya has been brought back from hell.She's been shagging Faith in her dreams, but she is human, and dying of a syphilitic heart condition.That is, until Angel comes along and turns Anya back into a vampire.Faith, under the constant strain, leaves Joyce and Snyder, along with the rest of the lawyers at W&H, to die in Wilkins's wine cellar.Faith returns to the Hotel and fires Harmony, Wesley, and Xander (oh, yeah, he's leading a group of homeless black kids ;-) kind of funny, I think).Oh, and Elizabeth is stuck in Sunnydale with a chip in her brain, nicknamed "Buffy" by Ripper to annoy her.She is completely head over heals for Kate, and in the process of sabotaging Riley's chances with the blonde slayer (though, unnecessarily considering Riley's behavior).

There endeth the lesson.

Sub-Author's Note:I kind of made up most of this story as I was writing the author's notes and pairing list, so I apologize for the weirdness of it.I kept thinking of parts in the show, but ran out of good characters to fill them with.But, I wasn't getting desperate on Harmony.I actually think she's a very good character to fill the shoes of the beloved Queen C!And no, not just because she's hot.

Dedication: To the writers at [You Got the Stones][2]? To Tommy, er… RedFire, and Shadow for listening to my babbling.

Part One

What was she doing?How insane was she?

Those questions repeated themselves around in Faith's head as she continued to drive.Her leather jacket lay to her side, but the cigarettes she'd stashed long ago for emergencies were all gone.Along with the thirty-seven packs she'd bought in the last week since firing her staff.Firing her _friends_.It didn't matter though.She was protecting them.They would be better off without working for Faith, the vampire with a soul, who was most definitely losing it.

Of course, the two demons she couldn't bring herself to slay, they were heading towards the other people she cared about.The woman she loved with all the passion her being.They couldn't be happy with several dozen groupies in LA, they had to come to Sunnydale to raise their "army."At least, that's what the annoying demon at Caritas had told him.Faith would be happy if she never say another Cher song again in the rest of her existence.How was she supposed to sing?She'd been a illiterate barmaid, not taught the finer things like how to sing and not look like a fool while doing it.Damn demon.

Coming back to reality in time to see that cursed Welcome To Sunnydale sign, brought one of her pale hands to the base of her neck, trying to masage away the kinks that had been causing her annoyance for fifty miles.Vampires didn't tend to get many natural aches and pains, but stress would bring them out as well as any human.And really, what could be more stressful than seeing the woman that you had loved, and still did, with all your heart, in the arm of another?And a man, at that.Not even a prime example of the species, just a human that thought he was some great soldier.Faith's only moment of peace when thinking of the situation, was realizing how happy he seemed to make Kate.At least, Riley was making Kate have something that Faith could never give her.A happy relationship.One where you didn't have to worry about your girlfriend becoming a soulless demon if you had a night of beautiful night with her.

Sighing, Faith continued to drive, trying to come up with a plan.

***

"What is she doing there?" Harmony listened to the response on the other end of the line, "Please don't tell me she's gone all Evil Faith on us again," she whispered to herself, before quickly yelling, "What do you mean you don't know?Lindsey, I swear, if you don't tell me everything you know, I'm so going to have Wesley kick your ass, and Xander won't mind helping.He doesn't like bartenders, you know," when she heard what the sleazy man on the other end of the line had to say, Harmony was ready to toss the cell phone out the window in anger.She did not want to deal with this right now."Well, fuck you too, Lindsey."

Xander glanced back at her from his position next to the driving Wesley, concern still etched in his face, "No luck?"

Harmony shook her head, her features those of a tired, stressed out friend who worried for the well-being of another almost constantly."No, Lindsey the so-called Snitch is being an ungrateful bastard.You would think that after how Faith saved his ass, he'd pay us a favor back."

Wesley had been his usual laconic self for most of the drive, but spoke up as he heard the last bit, "That is, unless she threatened him first," he said in his matter-of-fact, assuring way.

Xander nodded, "She would do that first.Make sure none of the local demons knew she was back in town.The undead would seem to cause trouble if they found out the former Scourge of Europe come-vampire exterminator was in town," Xander said, clarifying Harmony and Wesley's thoughts.Even if Faith was still on the side of the light, she was dangerous while this unbalanced.She was acting like Angel, without the talking to the stars part.

Harmony shook her head, worried.Faith wasn't just a boss, she was like a sister.A cold and often preoccupied sister, but one none the less.There'd been a time when Harmony had thought she was in love with the beautiful souled vampiress, but it had changed.They weren't meant to be lovers, they were already fine being family.This realization did not hit her until, coming out of the never-ending-vision, she had seen the look on Faith's face.

She had been saved, an now, it's was time to save her best friend, sister, and one-time fantasy.If Faith was evil now, they would have to find a curse, and make the damn thing less breakable.If she was herself… Harmony had no idea what she would do.The teetering, bloodlust reering, very unstable way Faith had been acting lately, it was just from one aspect of his past.A very important aspect, the woman who had created Faith's eternal life, but still just one piece of a two-and-a-half century puzzle.There was so much pain in Faith's existence, and not much could be done to take it away.The only time it had, Faith had led a seven-month rampage through Sunnydale and ended it in Hell.What could she possibly do to save a damned soul?

***

Elizabeth was ready to snap.

She'd sat there in Tara's crypt for hours, since waking up from a restless sleep, and listened to Tara babble on continuously.The stupid bint had gone on and on for as long as Elizabeth could remember, and she was getting ready to drive the nearest piece of sharpened wood into the annoying bitch.She carefully considered which was more important to her at this point in her unlife.Sex, or sanity.The blonde definitely was good for that.She was either a very quick study, or she'd learned more than how to spell with her arms as a cheerleader.Deciding sex won out over sanity, no contest, she just tuned the babbling out.That was, until she heard that damn name again.

"You'll protect me from Kate if she starts finding out that I told the vampire prostitutes to go to Riley, won't you Buffy?" Tara asked as she filed her nails to near razor-sharpness.

Standing up and kicking one of the boxes of junkyard collectibles, she broke into a not-uncommon tirade, "My name is not Buffy!I'd kill that boy if I could.Just because I had to stay in his damn basement for months, doesn't mean he has the right to torture me with that bloody fucking name!" Elizabeth referred to Ripper, who had managed to start a trend of calling her that.It was one thing when Kate said it, her sexy mouth curling into a mean sneer as she'd spit out the name at Elizabeth after landing a delicious punch on her, but no one else had the right.

Tara, who'd seen the whole thing a dozen times, just kept filing her nails, "Oh, sorry Lizzy.I forgot how much you hate that name," she didn't even bother looking at him as she said it, obviously not caring.

Elizabeth cringed at "Lizzy" but just shook her head and walked out of the bedroom.At least she couldn't call her blondy-bear anymore, with the fact that she hadn't been blonde since getting the chip installed.It was too bad that Tara's was the only place that had a bed.She couldn't bloody well get one into hers without a helluva more trouble than it was worth.She didn't even have a TV, so Passions was out.And, unless she was interested in Extra Dead, Extra Crispy vampire, leaving was also out for the next hour or so.

She sat down on a chair that had been kicked aside last night when she and Tara were getting to it, Elizabeth visualizing Tara as Kate, of course.As she was getting ready to try and nap the next hour before sunset, there was a crack as the door was thrown open and a figure covered in a dark blanket ran into the room.Elizabeth looked up shocked to see her grandsire throw off the blanket and come storming towards her.Lifting her up by the throat, Faith thrust her against the wall and held on, "I want information.Now."

"Oh…kay," was all she could get out.This did not look like a good situation.

End Part One

   [1]: mailto:Redbat1@earthlink.net
   [2]: http://ygts.cjb.net/
   [3]: http://www.geocities.com/aniblaire/EternalBitca



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